Moslemism is the only great post-Christian religion of the world. Because it had its origin in the seventh century under Mohammed, it was possible to unite, within it, some elements of Christianity and of Judaism, along with particular customs of Arabia. Moslemism takes the doctrine of the unity of God, His Majesty and His creative power, and uses it, in part, as a basis for the repudiation of Christ, the Son of God.

(The following was written in 1952 and reprinted in the October 2001 Mindszenty Report.)

The Power of Islam by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Misunderstanding the notion of the Trinity, Mohammed made Christ a prophet, announcing Him just as to Christians Isaiah and John the Baptist are prophets announcing Christ.

The Christian European West barely escaped destruction at the hands of the Moslems. At one point they were stopped near Tours and at another point, later on in time, outside the gates of Vienna. The Church throughout northern Africa ws practically destroyed by Moslem power, and at the present hour, the Moslems are beginning to rise again. If Moslemism is a heresy, as Hilaire Belloc believes it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined. Others have had a moment of vigor, then gone into doctrinal decay at the death of the leader, and finally evaporated in a vague social movement. Moslemism, on the contrary, has only had its first phase. There was never a time in which it declined, either in numbers, or in the devotion of its followers.

The missionary effort of the Church toward this group has been at least on the surface, a failure, for the Moslems are so far almost unconvertible. The reason is that for a follower of Mohammed to become a Christian is much like a Christian becoming a Jew. The Moslems believe that they have the final and definitive revelation of God to the world and that Christ was only a prophet announcing Mohammed, the last of Gods real prophets.

At the present time, the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power. Moslem writers say, When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: We are Gods host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it.

The problem is, how shall we prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg? It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Moslemism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity - and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect. It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teachings of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God. This is the line of argument:

Mary, Mother of God The Koran, which is the Bible of the Moslems, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all, the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception, and also, in her Virgin Birth. The third chapter of the Koran places the history of Marys family in a genealogy which goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam. When one compares the Korans description of the birth of Mary with the aprocryphal Gospel of the birth of Mary, one is tempted to believe tht Mohammed very much depended upon the latter. Both books describe the old age and the definite sterility of the mother of Mary. When, however, she conceives, the mother of Mary is made to say in the Koran: O Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.

When Mary is born, the mother says: And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under thy protection, O Lord, against Satan! The Koran passes over Joseph in the life of Mary, but the Moslem tradition knows his name and has some familiarity with him. In this tradition, Joseph is made to speak to Mary, who is a virgin. As he inquired how she conceived Jesus without a father, Mary answered: Do you not know that God, when He created the wheat had no need of seed, and that God by His power made the trees grow without the help of rain? All that God had to do was to say, So be it, and it was done. The Koran has also verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying: Oh Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.

In the nineteenth chapter of the Koran there are 41 verses on Jesus and Mary. There is such a strong defense of the virginity of Mary here that the Koran, in the fourth book, attributed the condemnation of the Jews to their monstrous calumny against the Virgin Mary.

The Significance of Fatima

Mary, then, is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary. In a variant of the text, Fatima is made to say, I surpass all the women, except Mary.

This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century, should have revealed herself in the significant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as Our Lady of Fatima. Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as Our Lady of Fatima as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Moslem people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son too. Evidence to suport these views is found in the historical fact that the Moslems occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Moslem chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Moslems left, but even embraced the Faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he live to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our Lady apeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

The final evidence of the relationship of Fatima to the Moslems is the enthusiastic reception which the Moslems in Africa and India and elsewhere gave to the Pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, as mentioned earlier. Moslems attended the church services in honor of our Lady, they allowed religious processions and even prayers before their mosques; and in Mozambique the Moslems who were unconverted, began to be Christian as soon as the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.

A Missionary Strategy Missionaries in the future will, more and more, see that their apostolate among the Moslems will be successful in the measure that they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is the advent of Christ, bringing Christ to the people before Christ Himself is born. In an apologetic endeavor, it is always best to start with that which people already accept. Because the Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion, with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Moslems the rest of the way to her divine Son. She is forever a traitor, in the sense that she will not accept any devotion for herself, but will always bring anyone who is devoted to her to her divine Son. As those who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

Many of our great missionaries in Africa have already broken down the bitter hatred and prejudices of the Moslems against the Christians through their acts of charity, their schools and hospitals. It now remains to use another approach, namely, that of taking the 41st chapter of the Koran and showing them that it was taken out of the Gospel of Luke, that Mary could not be, even in their own eyes, the most blessed of all the women of Heaven if she had not also borne the Savior of the world. If Judith and Esther of the Old Testament were pre-figures of Mary, then it may very well be that Fatima herself was a post-figure of Mary! The Moslems should be prepared to acknowledge that, if Fatima must give way in honor to the Blessed Mother, it is because she is different from all the other mothers of the world and that without Christ she would be nothing.

(This article courtesy of The Mindzenty Report, published by the Cardinal Mindzenty Foundation.)

Well, the sky probably IS falling. Unfortunately, it's doing so at a time when Catholics, at any rate, sapped by the undermining of their devotions and customs during the last 30 years, are not very well prepared to hold it up.

But at the same time, it is true that to Muslims, the distinctions between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox are immaterial. In fact, the distinction between Christians and Jews is not particularly important to them. We must remember that one of the things that enabled Islam to conquer Spain and North Africa was the fact that Christians were fighting among themselves, sometimes over politics (Visigothic kingdoms in Spain) and sometimes over religion (Arian and other heresies).

As a pragmatic matter, we've got to put all this aside for awhile. The real enemy has revealed himself, and he's not any of us.

These are not my words they are the words of a Catholic Icon (that I watched growing up)

A Missionary Strategy Missionaries in the future will, more and more, see that their apostolate among the Moslems will be successful in the measure that they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is the advent of Christ, bringing Christ to the people before Christ Himself is born. In an apologetic endeavor, it is always best to start with that which people already accept. Because the Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion, with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Moslems the rest of the way to her divine Son. She is forever a traitor, in the sense that she will not accept any devotion for herself, but will always bring anyone who is devoted to her to her divine Son. As those who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

The source of conversion should be Jesus Christ sink..We should preach Christ crucified..that isn't hateful it is scriptual..

I think it would be more productive to take this to a separate Protestant thread. I need to look for an article to post first, but I'm wondering why it should be so surprising that Mohammed's daughter's name is Fatima? It's an ARAB name, the MOORS (Arabs) were in Iberia. Mohammed had about 50 concubines (okay I'm not sure of the number) so he probably exhausted all the Arabic names. My own mother, born in D.C., was named Fatima after my grandpa's sister aunt in Beirut. Zeitun (egypt) I believe is Arabic for olive. An akita is a dog. And?

The prayer for the Moslems is wonderful, but the reason Moslems flock to Fatima is because Jesus (to them Issa or Esau and God said "Esau I have hated") is supposed to come back at the end times and according t them, he's going to slay every Christian who doesn't bow down to Mohammed according to the Moslems. Why should we get excited about that? If Protestants followed a scripture that said that the Pope in the last days is going to kill all Catholics who don't convert to Protestantism, I wonder if you'd all be so excited if Protestants were lining up to visit the Vatican, or would you realize they might be lining up to see you killed (in this hypothetical scenario)? You know how they line up to see stonings and public executions in the Moslem world, well that's the concept here.

Why do they always have to come muck up the Catholic threads? Why is it that everytime there is a discussion of any part of Catholic teaching they disagree with they have to come in and tell everyone they are going to hell for believing it? What is with the HUGE chip they seem to have on their shoulders?

Catholics don't do this to them. They are free to have their threads about pre-destination, rapture, sola scriptura etc without even a single Catholic screaming about how they are wrong in what they believe. Catholics don't run around damning them to hell or calling their preachers anti-christs for their un-biblical ideas. Yet they always have to come into Catholic/Orthodox discussions to pick fights. Do they actually think they win anyone's hearts with their constant attacks?

Regardless of what is preached Jesus Christ is always the source of conversion. It is neither the messenger or how he chooses the message, but the Word Incarnate that brings us home.

We should preach Christ crucified..that isn't hateful it is scriptual..

Why dont you go and try, see if you get any conversions. In any case, of course they will preach Christ crucified as well. That doesnt mean we should ignore common ground and use that to our advantage.

maybe he could read the February 15 2000 PLO Vatican agreement...the deals have allready been done

Have you compared the agreement with the PLO to the agreement with Israel? Can you tell me what it is in the agreement with the PLO that offends you, that is not also in the agreement with Israel? And yes, I do actually expect quotes, your own personal paraphrase wouldn't be all that effective.

The prayer for the Moslems is wonderful, but the reason Moslems flock to Fatima is because Jesus (to them Issa or Esau and God said "Esau I have hated") is supposed to come back at the end times and according t them, he's going to slay every Christian who doesn't bow down to Mohammed according to the Moslems.

I happen to believe in the rapture of the Church, the chaste bride of Christ, at the end times. The 'slay every Christian' may actually be the source of the great lie the world will believe concerning the sudden snatching away, that the Moslem's 'Esau has disposed of these who would not bow to Mohammed'. Apostasy always has some grain of plausibility in it, a times mostly plausible, but there is always that small bit of leaven that leveneth the whole.

Buddhism used to look appealing to me too. Then I read a chapter of the dalai lama's autobiography that totally cured me. He talks about the terrible torture of Tibetans by the ChiComms and then he still finds a way to praise Communism/Marxism and blame the west for China's being butchers. I guess we don't channel enough positive energy as Richard Gere would say.

Recently I found this (from Buddhist sites)

In the mid-sixteenth century, when Father Francis Xavier arrived in Japan with the hope of converting its people to Christianity, he was shocked upon encountering so many Buddhist monks involved in homoerotic relationships; indeed, he rapidly began referring to homoeroticism as the "Japanese vice." Needless to say, Father Xavier decided it was his duty to rid Japan of the "sin of sodomy." Xavier wrote, "We frequently tell the bonzes [i.e., Buddhist monks] that they should not commit such shameful sins; and everything that we tell them amuses them since they laugh about it and have no shame when they are reproached about so vile a sin." It appears, however, that Xavier and his fellow missionaries did not manage to convince a majority of Buddhists. It is reported that on one occasion, as he and a group of missionaries were walking through the streets of Yamaguchi, a gang of youths began yelling at them, "So you're the ones who forbid sodomy!" The youths then began throwing their shoes at them.

Now you know why they would take a male child from every family in Tibet and other Buddhist communities and give them to the monasteries.

Well now that I've angered the Catholics and the Buddhists, I have to go (I have to take my son to his homecoming), and I'm NOT anti-Catholic for anybody's information.

With regard to the passages frequently cited by Calvinists which say that "God hated..." the explanation is that the phrase "God hated..." is a Jewish idiom with a different meaning than what we would ascribe to the phrase.

Are you saying that Paul misunderstood the Jewish idiom? He did write in Greek, right? (I'm not a Calvinist, in the interests of full disclosure.)

The source of conversion should be Jesus Christ sink..We should preach Christ crucified..that isn't hateful it is scriptual.

One can be culturally relevant to Muslims without Lady Fatima. An amazing missionary to the Afghans and Pakistanis visited my seminary. He quoted their own poetry to them, sang their songs, immersed himself in their culture. All for the sake of presenting Christ.

Why do they always have to come muck up the Catholic threads? Because Satan knows the right address.

When you're equally hated by the liberals, homosexual activists, abortionists, population controllers, the UN, feminists, agnostics, atheists, communists, etc, as well as the fundamentalists and bible only folks, you know ya' just gotta be doing something right.

Frankly the more they attack, the deeper my faith gets. I makes me realize more than ever we fight alongside Christ, and the forces of anti-Christ are arrayed against His body, the Church.

Wonder why they never stop to contemplate the company they keep in deriding Catholicism?

Surely, the Whore of Babylon would be in league with the liberals, homosexual activists, abortionists, population controllers, the UN, feminists, atheists, communists, etc.

But those folks hate us just as much as these anti-Catholic Jack Chick types here.

Don't they ever stop to look around them at the company they're keeping and question where exactly they stand??? Do they not realize they themselves stand within the Whore of Babylon, alongside all the other little anti-Christs arrayed against Christ?

Do they not realize that true believers are not deceived by their propaganda?

We have 2000 years of the teaching of Christ and proper interpretation of scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and through the authority Christ granted His Church. We don't need their fallible personal interpretation of these various scriptural proof texts taken out of context. We know and understand their true context and their proper interpretation and we don't need the only-500-years-old-protestant-revolt-against-the-authority-Christ-gave-His-church-new-false-gospel-anti-Catholic-bigoted-interpretation.

My apologies for being uncharitable. I know in their own little minds they mean well, and think they are doing god's work. But so do the terrorists, to be blunt.

Time is too short to waste on these folks. The truth has been preached to them on this forum repeatedly. If they continue to refuse it, it is nigh about time to stop casting pearls, and shake the dust off our feet.

Yeah, Satan knows the right address.

And his minions do his bidding wittingly and unwittingly. May God have mercy on them.

I was listening to family radio tuesday they were talking about how our young multiculturally raised kids ,that seem to lack any ties to our culture are perfect missionaries,because they have no judgemental attitude toward other cultures and they when they learn the culture they are absorbed in it and so relate well on the mission fields..

But it's not written in Hebrew in the New Testament. In order to advance your theory, you have to claim that Paul misunderstood the idiom or unsuccessfully tried to port it into the Greek with similar results as "All your base are belong to us."

Just that Catholicism is attacked uniformly from all corners, much more so than any other Christian denomination.

I don't agree, but if you are right there is a reason for this. No other denomination makes the kind of arrogant claims for itself the the RCC does. And spare me the "that's because they are true" sermon. I've heard it all many times.

This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century, should have revealed herself in the significant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as Our Lady of Fatima.

I knew about the revelations at Fatima but am astounded to the link with Mohammed's daughter.

In the sense you mean "Western Civ." there is no hope, because in that sense "Western Civ." is the present materialism, the current horrible apostasy, and not instead the secular image, the veritable reflection, of Our True Holy and Catholic Church, over which even the gates of Hell have no power.

"Western Civ." without the Church is exactly like my heart without the Holy Spirit dwelling within. Just nothing there!

You people aren't the only folks here who are proud to be Roman Catholic. Would you please put me on the list?

The church is the "pillar and foundation of truth." -The Bible (1 Tim. 3:15)

Pillars and foundations are obviously references to buildings,therefore so is truth a part of the building.(in this analogy).Truth is that that must be seen yes? So in this analogy of a building truth is that part which must be the most easily seen.Pillars and foundations are that which HOLD UP the truth for all to see.The church itself is not the truth,it is that which should HOLD UP THE TRUTH for all to see.

BTTPlease put me on your ping listThanks for posting this Love Archbishop Sheen, he was prophetic on a number of topics especially the decline of morals in our country.This brings new weight to Mary's statement that by the rosary and the scapular she would save the world. These times (the fight over Islam) could very well be the times she was speaking of. Of course she always defers to her son. Cana showed us He would refuse her nothing. I am convinced through prayers especially the rosary we will be shown mercy. BTW I am pretty sure Zeitun is on the list of approved apparitions.

When you're equally hated by the liberals, homosexual activists, abortionists, population controllers, the UN, feminists, agnostics, atheists, communists, etc, as well as the fundamentalists and bible only folks, you know ya' just gotta be doing something right.

... I know in their own little minds they mean well, and think they are doing god's work. But so do the terrorists, to be blunt.

produd2bRC, switch to de-caf. Speaking from personal experience, people who disagree with you are not neccessarily the spawn of Satan, do not neccessarily hate you, and are not necessarily in league with liberals, homosexual activists, abortionists, population controllers, the UN, feminists, agnostics, atheists, and communists. I personally find the comparison of fundamentalists and bible only folks with terrorists to be extremely offensive, and unwarranted.

I have been told so many times on this forum that we Catholics worship Mary, belong to the church that represents the Whore of Babylon, listen to a Pope who is the anti-Christ, etc etc etc. Most Catholics here hold their tongue, in charity to our poor separated brethren who simply are ignorant.

When I posted the response to which you refer, I must admit I was in a foul mood and was thoroughly disgusted with the constant bigotry against the Catholic faith on this forum.

Regardless, Catholicism is continually attacked on this forum.

people who disagree with you are not neccessarily the spawn of Satan, do not neccessarily hate you

No, but they implicitly and explicitly say that we Catholics belong to a church that IS the spawn of Satan, that devotion to Mary is idol worship, etc etc etc.

Grow a thicker skin. If these folks want to continually insult and assault my faith, I'm not going to hold my tongue.

What I stated in that post is noting compared to what has been said to me personally and what has been said about my Faith on this forum. If you attack Catholicism, you attack the body of Christ. If you attack the body you attack the head, Christ. He who attacks Christ is anti-Christ. Therefore the ignorant bigots here who attack Catholicism work for Satan, whether they know it or not, whether they admit it or not.

They're just whining now because they usually are on the other end of making the charges about anti-Christ and Whore of Babylon. If they don't like it, stay off our Catholic threads!!!

I personally find the comparison of fundamentalists and bible only folks with terrorists to be extremely offensive, and unwarranted.

Good. In my mood at that time, it was absolutely intended to be extremely offensive. Absolutely.

Now you are beginning to get a feel for the way we Catholics feel as we continually bite our tongue and return insult with patient apologetics. Starting to get the point yet???

Every time the Jack Chick types make statements like

The basis of the Anti Christs one world religion...the "Queen of Heaven"!

it is even more offensive to us than what I said in my post is offensive to you, yet it happens every day here on FR.

One Catholic gets fed up and calls a spade a spade and just look at the whining. Give me a break.

I guess I'll be heading to confession this afternoon. My patience is gone, my charity depleted, for those who see the speck in their neighbor's eye yet fail to see the plank in their own on this forum.

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